


The Atami Open Beach Volleyball Tournament

by cymyguy



Series: Volleygirls prompts [3]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Bathing Suits, Beach Volleyball, Bisexual Female Character, F/F, Swimming, belly button piercing, college athletes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-09-28 16:57:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20429324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cymyguy/pseuds/cymyguy
Summary: Hinata can't wait to meet her beach partner!





	The Atami Open Beach Volleyball Tournament

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: heat/cold

Hinata has arrived. The Atami Open Beach Volleyball Tournament. If there were no signs, she’d still know she’s in the right place, because of all the tall women walking around in numbered sports bras and small, tight briefs. Good _grief _they’re tall. Hinata stares, up, at a group of six or seven passing by. The last pair of intimidatingly toned legs belong to a woman with set blue eyes and a proud, very pretty face, long black hair and deeply grooved biceps. Maybe this is not the place for a 167 cm bisexual.

But this is the place for volleyball players, and she’s that first and foremost.

She hasn’t been to her aunt and uncle’s since she was much younger, so she’s grateful they would still allow her to stay with them, and for a whole week while the tournament is going on. She’s excited to team up with another player registered as a single, since none of her uni teammates were able to come with her. She’s been at junior college the past two years, so her old friends are either already with their new university teams after getting recruited, or aren’t so serious about volleyball that they want to travel across the country to play outdoors during a withering heatwave. She walks up to the check-in tent, and the participants’ table.

“Hello!”

She presents her student ID to the woman.

“Hinata Shouyou…”

She highlights her name on the paper. Hinata secretly pumps her fist. She grins when the woman hands back her ID. She takes a little card out of a miniature printer, stamps it, and holds it out.

“Good luck in the tournament.”

“Thank you!” She bows. “Um, excuse me. How do I find out who my partner is?”

The woman looks blankly at her. Hinata glances at the equally confused man at the other table.

“Um, I registered as an individual.”

The woman blinks. “Oh.” Then she checks her paper again. “Ohh.”

“So, I need to be assigned a partner? Please! Also, um, there was no spot on the application to make requests, but, by any chance did I get someone tall? Like, over 180?”

She smiles her winningest smile. But the woman is looking sympathetic. Hinata’s face starts to fall.

“Um, people don’t normally register as individuals,” the woman says.

“I—I thought it was allowed! I thought it said so, on the form, I selected it because it was on there! Um, I think so.” She bows again.

“It is allowed. It’s not very common, is what I meant to say. This year—you’re the only one. Who registered without a team.”

“W—Wha—What?”

She looks between them.

“But—I didn’t bring anyone with me—There’s—There’s nobody to play with me?”

“Registration closed a week ago.” The woman shakes her head. “I’m sorry.”

“But—I…”

She turns and looks around her, at four glorious white-sand courts, and a countless number of blue and yellow volleyballs sailing through the air. Then she falls face first into the sand.

“Would you like to stay as a spectator?” the man at the other table ventures.

Hinata lifts her head.

“One adult pass, please.”

Hinata doesn’t give up hope of getting on one of these courts; she wouldn’t have gotten this far if she made a habit of doing that. There’s always a chance that someone will be injured, and while she’d never wish for that to happen, she can rest in the assurance that since she’s a registered player, she’ll qualify as a replacement. So she spends the first two days running between each of the four courts, viewing as much of every game as she can, tuning in to the sideline announcers to determine the status of each player. So far they’re all at full force, and that force is quite something; these players are all representing big university programs, the kind of program Hinata needs to get into by fall’s end in order to keep her career on a strong trajectory.

There’s one player in particular that she’s really keeping an eye on. It’s that dark-haired woman she saw on the first day, but no, she’s not just watching all her matches because she’s a babe. She watches, everyone watches, because this Kageyama Tobio girl is astoundingly talented. She’s not flashy, but her play is pure, and very fast, a mesmerizing combination. She’s some kind of prodigy setter from some big Tokyo uni. She’s Hinata’s exact opposite in every way, which makes Kageyama her ultimate sworn enemy by necessity. She’s also Hinata’s exact type, with her silky ponytail and sleek sunglasses and tight bra pulling her boobs together, and that makes her Hinata’s sworn enemy of several more lifetimes than just this one.

On the second evening she goes to a recreational part of the beach with her relatives. Then on the third evening she goes by herself, swimming around in the shallows and watching the surfers and the families playing with their dogs on the shore. On her way back into town, she decides to walk by the courts, just in case. The place is empty of regular people, but there’s a group of six players still on one court. They have balls.

Hinata shoots up to the edge of the court line in her yellow two-piece.

“Hi! Are you doing extra practice?”

“Um, yeah…” The thickest girl looks her up and down. “Who are you?”

Hinata stiffens, as she sees the player standing farthest back in the group. It’s Kageyama Tobio. Hinata looks right at her as her breath swells her chest.

“Hinata Shouyou, Fukuda University Miyagi! Nice to meet you!”

When she straightens out of her bow, Kageyama has turned away.

“I registered for the tournament, but I didn’t have a team,” Hinata says, “So I’m not playing right now. But I would like to join your practice, if you’ll have me!”

“Well, we were going to do some three on three stuff,” says the first girl, “And we already have the numbers for that, so—”

“I can rotate in when you need breaks!”

“We’re actually all from the same university,” says another girl, “So we have specific things we’re supposed to work on with each other.”

“Okay. I’ll be your line judge, then. Or I can chase balls for you.”

“In your swimsuit?” the girl smiles.

“Yes! It fits well, so when I bend over you won’t see anything unseemly.”

Another girl covers her laugh with her hand.

“Can I be your ballgirl?”

“Sorry, we don’t really need one,” the first girl says.

“I—”

“You’re not needed.”

Kageyama is looking hard at her. Once she recovers from the shock, Hinata glares back. But her face is getting red, so she picks up her sneakers, mumbling:

“Good luck tomorrow.”

She quickly walks away.

She goes to her aunt’s gym as a guest, very early in the morning, to get in what reps she can by herself. Then she returns to the beach, taking her seat in the sand right near the front. She doesn’t watch Kageyama’s team as much on this day, or the next, even though the number of teams is dwindling down. She wishes she had the privilege of wearing almost nothing, in addition to the privilege of playing. But there have been no bathing suits in the crowd, so for the sake of propriety she has cotton clinging to her sweaty back and thighs all day every day, until Friday, and the two semifinal matches.

Another team from Kageyama’s university plays the first one, and loses. Then it’s the setter and her partner’s turn on center court, and now the powerhouse name rests on their shoulders. They play pop music out of the portable speakers near the announcers’ table, and the crowd dances. When they announce the players, and they take their positions, with Kageyama on the back line preparing a killer serve, Hinata licks her lips, skin tingling a little. She sucks in a breath when Kageyama’s toss goes up. But from the first point, which goes to the opponents when their block shuts out the spike, it becomes clear that something on her side of the net is off.

The team they’re playing has a very specific attack style. Their main blocker is well over 180, and the second player has a floating jump serve that Hinata thinks should be against the rules in a two on two match. The server hits that dirty junk over and over, and Kageyama’s teammate struggles to dig it up. Whatever she gets in the air always comes to the net off the pristine lift of Kageyama’s hands, only for the poor spiker to be stuffed like a turkey by that huge blonde beanpole. Kageyama’s still on Hinata’s bad side, but she’s begrudgingly started to cheer for her, because she really hates something about that blocker’s face.

Net dominance is not on their side, but Kageyama and her partner both have nice serves, and Kageyama scores a decent number of spikes and dumps around the blocker. They’re two points ahead, and one point from winning, when Hinata switches to cheering against her again. Then, Kageyama makes a set so fast Hinata hardly sees it, and the spiker hardly gets a hand on it. It sails out of bounds on their own side of the net. Kageyama is next to the announcers’ table, and their mics pick up the end of what she’s saying, broadcasting it out to the crowd.

“—_match _my tosses if you want to _win_!”

Hinata gapes along with everyone else. Kageyama’s teammate turns without a word and goes back to her receiving area. Kageyama marches back to her corner, visibly huffing.

They serve at her partner, who sends it wayward, toward the announcers again. Kageyama sets it behind her, another perfect arch that the blocker won’t ever catch up to. And no one hits it.

Hinata and the whole crowd cover their mouths and stare, as Kageyama slowly turns and looks at the ball sitting in the sand, then at her teammate, standing right where she made the receive.

Her teammate turns to the ref and motions for a timeout. Then she walks past Kageyama, stepping over the court line, and starts gathering her things from under their umbrella. She stuffs her bag, says something to Kageyama, and walks off, leaving silence on the center court.

The officials hurry to play their regular timeout music, and the crowd gradually starts to voice their shock. Hinata doesn’t participate; she’s already running around the end of the court, over to the other side. She wiggles between spectators and the rope barricade, until she’s right behind Kageyama at her bench.

“Hey! Kageyama-san! I’ll play with you!”

Hinata waves at the nearest referee.

“I can play for her! I can be an alternate, I’m registered! I’m registered to play, so I can go in, right? Kageyama. I’ll play with you!”

Finally, Kageyama’s eyes jerk over to her, and lose some of their glaze.

“I can play. I can play,” she says to the ref.

“She can!”

Hinata looks into the crowd, where the woman from check-in is standing up.

“She’s a registered player. Show them your card,” she calls to Hinata.

Hinata whips the card out of her pocket and brandishes it at the lady. The ref checks the card, then turns to the seated officials.

“If she’s a registered player who hasn’t competed for any other team,” one says, “Then she is eligible to be a replacement in this match.”

“What?” Kageyama barks.

They all look at her.

“I’ll be your partner so you can finish the match,” Hinata says.

“Are you nuts?” Kageyama picks up her towel, just to throw it on the ground. “_You_? You’ll cost me the game!”

“You just cost _yourself _the game!”

Kageyama stares, eyes glassing over again. Hinata feels a little bad for her, but she keeps her voice firm.

“Unless you let me play with you. With me, you’ll still have a chance to win.”

Kageyama is still breathing heavily, as she looks hard at her. She puts her hand on her hip and glances away, then looks at her again. She opens her mouth, but someone speaks first.

“Did you see what just happened?” It’s the blonde blocker, from the other side of the net. “Why would you _want _to play with her?”

Hinata gives Kageyama the benefit of the doubt in assuming that’s what she was going to ask her. Her answer is for Kageyama.

“I deserve a chance to play in this tournament. And you deserve a second chance, I guess.”

Kageyama looks at her. Then she looks past, at the officials.

“You’ll get five minutes, standard time for an injury substitution.”

“Go change,” Kageyama tells her. “And do a warmup.”

Hinata almost didn’t wear her uniform under her clothes today, and now she’s super proud of herself for not giving up. She whips off her tank top and drops her athletic shorts, missing the sounds of shock the watching crowd makes, and leaps over the sideline chairs to stand courtside in her black spandex and sports bra.

“I even wore my number one today!” she says, sticking her chest out to show the number opposite Kageyama’s.

“Go warm up over there.”

Kageyama waves her toward the end line and takes a seat, throwing her towel over her head. Hinata kicks off her flip flops and jogs down to the open sand. It’s really hot on her feet, and she dances through the first few phases of her warmup. She does an abbreviated version of her team’s standard, and comes running back in probably three minutes.

“Let’s go let’s go!”

“I can’t believe this is happening,” says the freckled player from the other side of the net.

“I can believe her teammate walking out on her,” says the blocker, “But I can’t believe there’s anyone here stupid enough to willingly take that spot.”

“Don’t listen to them Kageyama!” She hits her on the back. “We’re a team now, and we’re going to win together!”

Kageyama stands up, and grabs the back of her hair.

“Ow, _ow_!”

“Listen up. You do exactly what I say, and I’ll be able to get us out of this. I’m going to the final,” Kageyama says. “I’d rather do all the receiving, setting and spiking myself, but—”

“But you’ll never win that way!” Hinata says. “I’m going to help you win, Kageyama, and make you eat your words! You said I wasn’t needed, and now you need me or you’re totally screwed!”

She grins as Kageyama tries to incinerate her with a glare.

“Look, you runt—”

“Karasuno’s serve,” the ref calls, pointing to their opponents’ side. “Score is tied.”

Hinata smiles wide. “I’ll do my best!”

“Do what I say,” Kageyama says, and with that they step onto the court.

The freckled woman isn’t serving, thank the volleyball gods who are on Hinata’s side, but the blonde aims right for Hinata, who usually gets subbed out in the back row for a reason. She sends her pass in a giant arch toward where they were just standing. Kageyama takes off after it, hollering as she goes.

“If you told me your receiving was garbage, I wouldn’t have agreed to this!”

“It’s not my strength,” Hinata yells back, taking off toward the net.

She jumps, and wow that’s a pretty toss. She makes sure to do her prettiest swing, and crushes it onto the other side.

“YEAAAA—”

Her smile is huge, her hands are high in the air for a celebration, and Kageyama only stares at her.

“What was that?” she demands.

“What? I scored a point off it!”

“What was that jump just now?” Kageyama says. “You said you went to some crummy ju-co.”

“It wasn’t crummy! We won our prefecture both years and went to nationals!”

Kageyama glares at her for a long moment. Hinata glares back. Kageyama points toward the end line.

“It’s your serve.”

Hinata hustles to the back. They only need one more point, which is kind of a bummer since she just got in the game, but she’ll give the serve her best. She’s gotten pretty good at aiming for sidelines, so she hits it off to the blonde’s left. She dives onto her stomach to get it up, and the freckled girl starts an approach.

“It’s coming over,” Kageyama says, “Stay back. Stay back!”

Hinata leapt forward, intent on blocking, and now she’s caught a few feet from the net as the spike comes. It blasts her in the face and drops off to the side.

“Dammit,” she murmurs, rubbing her cheek.

“Are you okay?” the freckled girl calls. Hinata gives a thumbs up.

“That won’t happen if you do what I say,” Kageyama says.

“Yeah yeah, I get it! At least come help me up, I’m your teammate.”

Kageyama rolls her eyes, but walks over and pulls her out of the sand.

“Yamaguchi, nice serve,” the blonde says over her shoulder. Hinata groans and gets ready for it.

“Get it to the middle of the court,” Kageyama says. “If it’s not too far in any direction, I can work with that. You’ll have to recover quick, though.”

“Okay!” She nods.

She does get it to the middle, almost straight above where her face is planted in the sand. She rolls out of Kageyama’s way and scrambles to her feet. She starts forward, and eyes the looming block in front of her. This is the play their opponents make over and over, pressuring them into coming at a block that’s hard to beat one on one. And Hinata’s really not liking her chances at this height. She spins and runs away, brushing right past Kageyama as she rushes for the other end of the court.

“Here Kageyama! I’m here!”

She jumps up for a slide, which they’ve never done together, obviously, but Kageyama doesn’t even look back before she sends the ball over. Hinata has a completely free shot down the line, and she nails it. The crowd roars.

“Yeah! Kageyama, nice toss!”

She nods, then turns to go to the serving line, but Hinata runs to cut off her path. She holds up her hands with a determined scowl. Kageyama smacks them.

Hinata grins. “Do a good serve.”

“I will. We’re about to win.”

“Yeah!”

“You go up to the net for blocking. Cut off the line, and I’ll take the cross.”

“Right!”

Kageyama’s serve comes all the way back over on an errant receive. She passes it to Hinata.

“Nice and high.”

“Okay!”

It goes high, but about two meters closer to herself than to Kageyama. Kageyama charges over and punches it down, but it’s picked up by the freckled girl, and she shoots Hinata a glare before pointing her back. So Hinata drops away from the net, and Kageyama jumps up to block.

“Touch!”

Hinata bolts into the back corner, diving to save the ball. She digs herself up and runs dead out for the net. Kageyama jumps up—and dumps it over into the empty spot.

The whistles blow, the announcers shout out the winners’ names to the rocking crowd, the refs point to their side.

“Hey!” Hinata says. “I wanted to score the winner! I’m the hero of the day!”

Kageyama scowls. “I’m going to the final.”

Hinata heaves a sigh. “Fine. Good play.”

They turn to shake hands under the net. They bow to their opponents.

“Thank you for the game!”

All four players turn to the officials. “Thank you for the game!”

Then Hinata turns to Kageyama.

“Thank you for the game!”

Kageyama’s eyes quiet a little, and she dips her head.

Some of Kageyama’s teammates come to talk to her after the crowds have dispersed. Hinata feels really awkward, but she hangs around, pretending to be absentminded as she waits to see if she’ll get to play again tomorrow. Not that she doesn’t want Kageyama to patch things up with her team, but honestly Kageyama seems to have some pretty big issues that will take longer than a day to fix.

She gets lost in her thoughts, and the next thing she knows Kageyama is standing over her.

“I’m—Um, I’m going to—When we go back, I’ll—talk to my team,” she says. “They said I should just play with you for tomorrow, that it’ll be good for me.”

“Really? I get to play tomorrow?” Hinata jumps to her feet.

“Yeah.”

“Alright! Um, I’m—Sorry about your team, though. But it’ll work out.”

Kageyama doesn’t comment further. Instead she says:

“My biggest concern right now is your height and that shitty ass receiving.”

“Hey!”

“Come on, I got Court 3 for us.”

“To practice?”

“What else would we do?”

“Yeah,” she screams, sprinting ahead.

“Hey, no head start!”

They play together for the rest of the afternoon and into the evening. Kageyama’s lucky that Hinata’s in great shape, or she would’ve been beaten into the ground before the final tomorrow. As it stands she’s feeling a little lactic acid buildup, and she’s still baking to death, so she suggests they go down to the water.

“Have you been yet?”

“I’m not here for vacation,” Kageyama says, “I’m here for competition.”

“Well that’s probably part of your problem! You need to enjoy yourself now and then, and maybe you wouldn’t be so ramped up and intense.”

“And you were probably stuck in ju-co for two years because you’ve got ability but don’t take things seriously enough.”

“I’m not here for vacation either, Kageyama,” she says. “I came to play, even though no one else on my team could.” She pauses in thought. “I guess we’re both without a team, right now.”

Kageyama looks hard at the ground.

“Will you go swimming with me?”

“I have to come up with a strategy for tomorrow.”

“Come on,” Hinata whines. “It’ll be good for a cool down, after the workout, right?”

Kageyama’s lips pull into an ‘o’.

“Oh,” she says, and “Yeah. Let’s go change.”

So they head up the beach to a long, low tent, the inside separated by curtains to form small individual changing rooms. Kageyama is between her and the setting sun, and Hinata does her best not to glance over at the shadow of woman she can see against the curtain. Hinata steps out of the tent, and Kageyama steps out, and then they look each other over, accidentally, while they’re waiting for the other to start walking. Hinata turns away first and walks.

Her two-piece is golden yellow with white flowers. It’s the only bathing suit she has, and Kageyama already saw her in it earlier this week. Hinata keeps ahead of her companion, telling herself she cannot look at Kageyama in her suit anymore, or the other girl will wonder why she’s sweating so profusely during a cool down. Kageyama’s is all one piece, a pale pink on the top, tied behind her neck and crossing over her breasts, and the pink connects to a black bottom at her hips. They both drop their bags in the sand as they get closer to the water, and happen to turn toward each other, and Hinata sees again the small section of her stomach that’s left uncovered by the swimsuit in a rather sexy manner. She also sees, to her downright horror, that Kageyama now has a tiny silver chain trickling down from her belly button.

Hinata sprints to the water.

Once Kageyama has caught up and shoved her headfirst into a wave, and once Hinata has resurfaced, she says:

“You—You have a—a piercing?”

Kageyama scowls.

“On your—” She swallows. “Stomach?”

“Oh,” Kageyama says, glancing down. “Yeah.”

“Well that’s hot.” Hinata freezes with her hand in her hair.

“Thanks.”

Her eyes dart back to Kageyama, who’s busy walking deeper into the water, unaffected. Hinata takes a deep breath, puts her hands into the cool water and then presses them to her fiery cheeks.

They wade around, until the sky is so dim that Hinata can’t really make out the blue of her eyes anymore during her sneaky glances. When Kageyama turns back toward the shore, Hinata follows her slow pace. Kageyama’s bare back, then her butt, then her legs come out of the water, centimeter by centimeter, until her feet are picking up dry sand as she leads her back toward their bags. When she gets to them she sits down, so Hinata does the same.

It’s the best sunset she’s seen, probably because there’s someone sitting beside her. When Hinata finally blinks, and returns her attention, Kageyama is stretched out on her back, damp hair pulled out of its pony and strewn across the sand. Her eyes are closed, her arms are up over her head, and her chest falls as a deep breath eases out of her.

“Hey.”

She’s propped up on her elbows now, looking at her, and Hinata tries to pull herself together, even as the heat in her cheeks starts to creep up to her brain, frazzling her. Kageyama doesn’t appear to appreciate, or even notice, her struggle.

“We’ll win tomorrow,” she says.

Hinata’s lips part as her mind clears.

“As long as you’re playing with me,” Kageyama says, “You’ll win.”

Slowly, Hinata grins.

“Then there’s no one else I’d rather play with, even though you’re the worst pain in the ass I’ve ever had.”

Kageyama scowls, and throws a fistful of sand in her face. Hinata is quick enough to turn away, and she laughs as she wipes off her cheek. And Kageyama, she smirks.

It’s really too hot for this.


End file.
